Heroes Over Europe

Most easily accomplished on the first mission. Set the difficulty to 'Rookie', and make sure that every shot counts! Be especially careful when shooting the ground targets, as they can be hard to hit.

Overall, the first mission should present few problems with regards to this achievement. Later missions are much more difficult to even attempt to unlock this achievement on!

I used the mission London Burning, You only have to shoot down a total of like 9 planes (Epsilon suggested there is 11) all of which is easily done on Rookie just using Ace Kills

I got this in the RAF 72 SQN campaign on the mission "Operation Cerberus." This is the mission where you have to sink the warships in the English Channel with the torpedo bomber.

The key to getting the achievement on this mission is to actually NOT fire at any enemy airplanes. Just sink the ships. Also, set the difficulty to "Rookie" to make things easier.

Tips for sinking the ships:

- approach them so their sides are directly facing you. This presents you with the biggest target area.
- adjust your speed and altitude so that both meters are green.
- get fairly close to the ship before dropping the torpedo. Also, aim just in front of the ship or right near its bow to increase your chances of getting a hit.
- if you're missing a few too many shots, reload the checkpoint. Most of the checkpoints put you right by the ships.

With that in mind, start the mission. After sinking the target ship, go to the marker and search for the enemy warship. Find it, and sink it with torpedoes. Two hits should sink the ship.

Fly to the next marker and search around for the other ships. When enemy planes show up, just ignore them. When you find the ships, sink them.

Ignore the message about the Stukas, and instead head for the friendly freighter being attacked by torpedo boats. For this part, switch to rockets (X button). To sink the torpedo boats, approach them slowly from the front or rear, and when the target reticule is completely red fire a single rocket with LT to destroy each boat. Again, if you've missed a few too many shots, reload the checkpoint.

Head for the next marker to search for the remaining ships. Fly fairly high up to spot them; if you have some wingmen left they'll head for the ships so follow them if you're having trouble.

The last battle involves two battleships and a destroyer, and you need to sink both battleships within six minutes, which is plenty of time. Sinking the destroyer is optional, but since it's putting up heavy AA fire you may want to torpedo it.

Simply follow the tips mentioned above to sink the battleships, and the achievement will unlock at the end of the mission. I finished this mission with 82% accuracy.

Remember: Don't shoot any of the enemy planes! The tail gunner will fire at any that get behind you, but his accuracy doesn't count towards the achievement.

I suggest playing through the first mission, Phoney War, a second time after you first complete it. This lets you have access to the Tomahawk, a decent beginner plane with bombs. Use the bombs on the ground targets, and be sure to line your shots up precisely. I chose to try to ram the bombers down, let my health refill, and repeat until the bombers are gone. This is somewhat time consuming but saves some accuracy. The fighters are better to just flat-out shoot down. It seems that Cliff is not that great with shooting down the AI.

Another great level for this achievement is London Burning. In the beginning, you will be tasked with shooting down a few fighter planes. Simply get in close and Ace Kill them to keep your accuracy up. Next you must take out some bombers; 5 nets you a bonus objective. This should be easy enough, simply line up behind them and let 'er rip. The bombers will go down quickly and the level will end. Without using Ace Kills, I hit 77% first try.

Always remember to use Ace Kills! The Ace Kills, if performed perfectly the first time, will be the quickest, easiest, and safest ways to eliminate the fighters.

Finally, make sure you are playing on Rookie mode with your preferred control scheme. Those of you who enjoy the more realistic flights sims may want to try Professional, while those who liked Blazing Angels control scheme may prefer arcade.